July 24th, 1942
Barbarossa
- Baltic Sea
Second battle of Ventspils (2/2)
00:01 - The Svirepy is hit by two torpedoes fired by the German torpedo boats and sinks.
00:03 - The Stroyny and the Spokoiny are in flames, silhouetting the German ships in the eyes of the Smertlivyi, Steregushchyi and Silnyi, which arrive from the southeast. All three open fire with 130 mm while launching their torpedoes. The closest target is the unfortunate Z-25, which tried to take cover and fell from Scylla to Charybdis; it takes at least seven 130 mm shells and its speed dropped to 10 knots. The Z-30, which accompanied it, tries to cover it.
00:05 - The two German cruisers have turned their fire on the new arrivals and hit the Smertlivy hard, which also starts to burn.
00:06 - Finally a Soviet torpedo hits the target ! It is for the Köln. Seriously hit, the cruiser has to slow down to 6 knots.
00:07 - A fireball marks the end of the Stroyny, the second Soviet destroyer to disappear. But the situation of the Ciliax fleet becomes worrying. One of its two cruisers and one of his destroyers are seriously damaged. He orders the torpedo boats to leave the Spokoiny and to attack the three new Soviet destroyers, while the Nürnberg assists the Köln.
00:10 - By the time the four torpedo boats reach the Z-30, the latter is alone with the Z-25 agonizing against the three Soviets. It hits the Steregushchy, but receives several 130 mm shells and must seek refuge behind a curtain of smoke.
00:11 - The four torpedo boats attack, just as the Kirov group enters the scene. The Steregushchy, torpedoed in the middle, stops (it will sink at 00:37).
00:12 - The Kirov fires two salvos on "the nearest German light cruiser." In fact, it is the Z-30, whose front turret is torn off by a 180 mm shell.
00:13 - The Kirov engages the Nürnberg. The distance falls to less than 6 000 meters, and the shots are all the more precise.
00:14 - The Nürnberg returns fire and destroys the A turret of the Kirov, but receives two shells in exchange and flees behind a smoke screen stretched by its torpedo boats. During this time, the Z-30 is hit by the 130 mm of the Ognevoj and Obrazsovyj and also escapes in the smoke.
00:16 - The Soviet fire directors then see another cruiser, which tries to move away at low speed. It is the Köln, of which only the front turret is still operational. The unfortunate ship is soon hit by 180 mm and 130 mm shells.
00:20 - The Ognevoj and the Obrazsovyj each fire half a burst of torpedoes. Hit at the stern, the Köln starts to sink.
00:21 - At this moment, the Kirov is also hit by a torpedo, apparently coming from nowhere, which seriously damages its bow. The Soviets believe at first that it is a submarine, a mine or a speedboat, until the Obrazsovyj discovers the culprit: it's the Z-25, almost immobile and which the Soviets were wrong to forget. The German destroyer is fired at with 130 mm guns, the German destroyer answers only with its 37 mm AA. It is finally finished off by a torpedo from the Ognevoj.
00:30 - Fearing that torpedo boats would attack his damaged ships, Feldman orders his squadron to regroup and return to Tallinn as quickly as possible. He lost three destroyers, two others are damaged and the Kirov is seriously damaged. However, he thought he had sunk a light cruiser (the Köln), as well as two large destroyers (the Z-25 and Z-30 - in fact, the latter managed to reach Memel). In addition, he damaged another light cruiser (the Nürnberg).
Meanwhile, the fight between speedboats cost the Soviets seven G-5 speedboats, but the S.106 is sunk and the S.75 had to be scuttled.
All in all, the second battle of Ventspils is a real disaster for the Germans, despite the losses inflicted on the Soviet Baltic Fleet. The Kriegsmarine finds itself with, for operational ships in the Baltic, a heavy cruiser with capricious machinery, the Hipper, and a light training cruiser, the Leipzig, accompanied by a handful of torpedo boats. Even the S-Boat flotillas see their numbers gradually decrease.
On the Soviet side, if the Kirov is unavailable for three months, its twin, the Maksim Gorky will soon be operational.
...
- Northern sector
While the German ships return to Gotenhafen [Gdynia] and Memel, the I Corps starts to attack Ventspils again, but its progress remains slow. Worse, in the south, von Chappuis's forces are on the move. Leeb, in agreement with Both and Chappuis, decides to suspend operation Bruno until he has more artillery, and in particular howitzers of 210 mm.
...
- Central sector
The PanzerGruppe 2 begins to withdraw from the Smolensk salient, replaced by the XX and IX Army Corps. Still hoping to obtain the support of the OKH, Guderian harasses Halder: "It is clear! A rapid resumption of the offensive in our sector could open the road to Moscow!" In fact, he is preaching to the choir: Halder himself is convinced that the fall of Moscow before the autumn rains came would give Germany its best chances of strategic success. But he also knows that this idea is contrary to the will of Hitler, now concerned about Ukraine above all.
On the Soviet side, Zhukov tours his units south of Smolensk (Eremenko's 43rd Army) and reorganizes his forces. He asks the Stavka for authorization to divide the 1st Belorussian Front into two entities, but does not obtain it.
...
- Southern sector
South of Zhitomir, Rokossovsky pushes his advantage. During the night he creates an improvised force with 11 KV-1, 17 T-34 and 19 T-50, on which infantrymen will cling during the assault itself (first use of this tactic which allows to compensate a little for the lack of assault transports). At dawn, the Soviet artillery shows again its power, in the form of a three-hour barrage that fell mainly on the positions of the 75. ID. Then the 47 tanks break through. The light anti-tank guns prove to be unable to stop even the small T-50s, and the 88 mm are bludgeoned by the long-range field guns as soon as they open fire. For the first time since May 17th, the German infantry panicks and a huge hole opens in the middle of the XLVIII. PanzerKorps.
Rokossovsky is too weak to exploit, but Kempf, with the agreement of von Kleist, orders the whole PanzerKorps to withdraw to its starting point.
On the Vinnitsa side, Kirponos' counter-attack is not as successful. His troops attack before dawn and manage to regain control of the road to Uman, but they are unable to drive the German forces back across the South Bug. A salient 15 km deep and 30 km wide is created south of Vinnitsa. The losses of the IV Corps are so heavy that von Stülpnagel orders his men to go on the defensive and entrench themselves.
...
- Black Sea
The Soviet submarine S-32 attacks a Romanian convoy going from Constantza to Sulina along the coast. The commander of the submarine claims to have sunk "a large cargo ship", but Romanian sources only mention the loss of the small tug T-7, torpedoed at 22:56.